The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy Book 1

Dark Horse is pleased to offer the stunning visions of designer Yoshitaka Amano as individual volumes previously available only as a part of the now sold-out The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy Boxed Set or still-available The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy Slipcased Edition. The legend begins here with The Sky Book One, containing Amano's sketches and paintings for the first three Final Fantasy games. Introduced are characters such as Princess Sarah, Firion, Cid, Maria, Sara Altney, Alus Restor, Ricard Highwind, and many others.

Having previously missed out on the original release, getting a new opportunity to check out an art book for Final Fantasy is truly a delight for me.  Being such a huge fan of the series in general, I automatically jump at the chance to enjoy any bit of content.  The re-release of all three books for The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy is more than welcomed, especially with this being my first time seeing them.  As soon as I opened Book One, I finally got to see what I’ve been missing out on this whole time.

This book is purely an art book, through and through.  That is not at all a bad thing for quite a few reasons.  As it is, artwork that comes out of the Final Fantasy universe is always gorgeous.  It really just comes with the territory.  With that being said, having an entire book filled with the illustrations of Yoshitaka Amano makes it all the more spectacular.  Whether or not you already know the name, once you finish with this book you’ll know why it’s a name to remember.  On top of all that, sometimes it’s just nice to sit down with a book of nothing but beautiful artwork on a rainy day and this fits that bill.

A book like this is such a visual treat, regardless of being a Final Fantasy fan or not.  Page after page of what is virtually like seeing Amano’s sketchbooks is time absolutely well spent.  Covering his contributions to Final Fantasy I, II and III, art lovers and obviously fans will get to see such a wonderful collection of his work here.  I’ve always appreciated seeing the behind the scenes work from games and movies, so being from Final Fantasy this was way up there for me.

Anyone that was lucky enough to get the long since sold out box set, or even the slipcase set may not necessarily see the need to acquire this.  For anyone that has not been able to do so before, this is an excellent time to grab them as the three books come out individually.  I personally cannot wait for the next two and would suggest everyone new to them should plan to pick them up.

For more on The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy or other Dark Horse books, check out Dark Horse Comics.

The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy Book One will be available 10/22

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.